Saturday, January 31, 2015

Sometimes I am mortified by something I do or don’t do; sometimes I am ashamed because I do not live up to my expectations of myself.

Sometimes I purposely mortify myself; I try to discipline my body—to deny myself something that I enjoy, usually—in order to try to heighten my sense of dependence on you and to remind myself that my true joy is in you.

Sometimes I am made aware of the mortification of my body in another sense: it is in fact decaying and one day it will die.

Let mortification be an appropriate part of my life; after all, I do fall short, I do need to discipline myself, and I am going to die.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Thank you that you forgive when we cannot forgive, that you are faithful when we cannot be faithful, that you offer grace when we cannot offer grace, and that you love when we cannot love.

Help us to experience and to grow in your forgiveness, in your faithfulness, in your grace, and in your love so that we will become more able and willing gratefully to share with others what you so generously bestow on us and on them.

Saturday, January 24, 2015

We acknowledge our limitations; there are things we cannot know, things we cannot understand, things we cannot do, and things we cannot be because we are human and because of our particular genetic makeup.

Still, there are so many limitations that we accept that are not imposed on us; there are so many narrow and shallow attitudes, mindsets, assumptions, customs, and ways that we accept and follow uncritically and that keep us from experiencing life in all its wonder and glory.

Show us any such things in our life that drain life from us rather than pour life into us; show us how to turn away from them and to turn toward other attitudes, mindsets, assumptions, customs, and ways that would make us more fully alive.

For as long as we live on this Earth, let us be fully alive.

And when our life here is over, make us more alive than we ever thought possible.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

help us to become so aware of the mysteries and wonders of life and to become so attuned to the rhythms and vagaries of life that we consistently pause to ponder, to absorb, and to respond to all that is going on around us.

Let us live moment by moment with so much awareness, attentiveness, and sensitivity that it doesn’t take a terrible tragedy or a spectacular event to give us pause; help us constantly to live life as the ongoing remarkable experience that it is.

And when life gives us pause, help us to experience you in all of it and remind us to give you praise for all of it …

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Some of our scientists tell us that we may live in a multiverse, that the universe in which we live may be only one of many—perhaps an infinite number—of universes.

As if we didn’t already feel lost in the cosmos!

On the other hand, it was already remarkable to ponder how, in the vast universe that we know for sure exists, we by your grace and through your power ended up being here on this planet on which conditions are just right for the development of life. Help us to work together to take better care of our planet since it is, at least for the foreseeable future, the only home we have.

And it was already beyond remarkable to consider that you, the God of all that ever has been, is now, and ever will be, think about us, care about us, and love us. It was and is way beyond remarkable to consider that you love us so much that you entered this world in human form through Jesus Christ who submitted himself to death on the cross for our sake. It was and is way beyond remarkable to consider that you are with us right here and right now.

O God, open our minds to the vast realities of your Creation. Open our imagination to our place in the multiverse (if that's what it is), in the universe, in the world, in our community, and in your kingdom. Open our hearts to your love for and presence with us.

Help us to worship you as the God who made and sustains all that is and as the God who knows and loves each one of us.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

We want to be true to ourselves,
to who you made us to be,
to who you intend us to be, and
to who you saved us to be.

Give us courage to examine ourselves
honestly that we might know who we are;

give us insight to distinguish between our true self
and whatever false selves we have constructed
in our misguided efforts to hide our true self
from ourselves, from others, and from you.

Give us faith to trust you to remove our
false identities and to restore our true self;

give us a vision of who we can and will be as
we grow by your grace toward reclaiming your image in us.

Give us ever-increasing integrity so that
our words and actions will come from
sound motives that are produced by our true self
and so that our true self will grow more and more
into the one that is truly ours in you.

Monday, January 19, 2015

Help us to stand for equality, for fairness, for justice, and for dignity.

Since we believe that one day all of your people will be together forever in one community, help us to do all that we can to build that community here and now. Help us to live in ways that will foster on Earth what will be in heaven.

As we take our stands, help us to take them in ways that reflect your ways—the ways of love, grace, sacrifice, service, and non-violence. Help us not to respond to evil with evil but rather to overcome evil with good.

Help us to stand for what is best and not for what is customary, for what should be and not for what is, for the kingdom of heaven and not for the kingdom of this world, and for all people and not just for our people.

Help us to stand for good and not for evil, for right and not for wrong, for love and not for hate, for hope and not for despair, and for justice and not for injustice.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

On the one hand, we want to know you; on the other hand, we shudder at the prospect of knowing you.

We want to know you because we are made to know you and because down deep in our hearts we know that we must know you if we are to be fully ourselves. But we shudder at the prospect of knowing you because you are a holy God and we are so flawed and frail and broken.

The gain, though, is well worth the risk. Thank you for making yourself known to us in all of the ways that you in your grace have chosen to make yourself known to us, but especially in your Son Jesus Christ and through your Spirit. Show us how to keep our lives open to you so that we can grow in our knowledge of you.

On the one hand, we want to be known by you; on the other hand, we shudder at the prospect of being known by you.

We want to be known by you because we need someone to know us as we truly are, to accept us as we truly are, and to love us as we truly are. We shudder at the prospect of being known by you because we know ourselves so well and dread the vulnerability that comes with being known fully by someone else.

Help us to remember that you know us fully whether or not we want you to know us. Help us to accept that reality and to live in light of it; help us to keep our lives open to the ways that you can help us to understand ourselves and that you can help us to be the best version of ourselves that we can possibly be.

We praise you, O God, because you know us and because you let us know you.

We praise you that in your grace you choose to have the fullest possible relationship with us that we are willing to let happen. Help us always to be conscious of just how badly we really do want it …

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Sometimes it seems that I can’t for the life of me
get my eyes off of myself long enough to pay
appropriate attention to you and to other people.
It is at those times, which are all too frequent, that
I find little meaning, challenge, or satisfaction in life.

So, for the life of me—for the sake of my life,
for the sake of my life meaning what it can and should mean—
help me better to turn my eyes away from myself and
more toward you and toward others.

Help me to live in light of the fact that
real life is found not in over-valuing my life
but rather in giving it away.

Help me to live in light of the fact that
it is in living life for your sake and
for the sake of others that
I best live life for my sake as well.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

so that we can see your purposes more clearly,
so that we can see our own hearts more clearly,
so that we can see other people more clearly,
so that we can see problems to be addressed more clearly,
so that we can see opportunities to help more clearly,
so that we can see our way forward more clearly,
so that we can see the wonder of life more clearly,
so that we can see truth more clearly, and
so that we can see you more clearly.

As we learn to see more clearly, give us a clear vision
of how we should be and of what we should do—
then help us to grow toward being and doing what we should.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

As for those who try to bring us together, we pray that they will know success.
As for those who attempt to divide us, we pray that they will experience failure.

As for those who work for peace, we pray that they will know success.
As for those who pursue war, we pray that they will experience failure.

As for those who try to foster appreciation for other cultures, we pray that they will know success.
As for those who try to create conflict between cultures, we pray that they will experience failure.

As for those who value their faith without denigrating that of others, we pray that they will know success.
As for those who would go to any extreme to have their religion triumph over others, we pray that they will experience failure.

As for those who want to see respect, understanding, and appreciation increase, we pray that will know success.
As for those who want to see disrespect, ignorance, and fear increase, we pray that they will experience failure.

As for those who pursue love, we pray that they will know success.
As for those who promote hate, we pray that they will experience failure.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

When we fall, cause us to get up.
When we are discouraged, cause us to look up.
When we sin, cause us to ‘fess up.
When we are challenged, cause us to buck up.
When we are unsure, cause us to hold up.
When we are needed, cause us to join up.
When we can’t do it alone, cause us to link up.
When we are close minded, cause us to open up.
When we have options, cause us to size up.
When we need to bear witness, cause us to put up.
When we need to be quiet, cause us to shut up.
When we should give, cause us to pony up.
When we get weak in our faith, cause us to tone up.
When we are being deceived, cause us to wise up.

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Thank you for the privilege of gathering today as your baptized people.

Lead us to worship you today as those who have been baptized not only with water but also with the Holy Spirit.

Let our worship of you today help us to move farther down the path of knowing that we are baptized with your Spirit and of living in light of the fact that we are baptized with your Spirit.

We praise you for the comfort of your Spirit; help us to rest in that comfort.
We praise you for the challenge of your Spirit; help us to respond to that challenge.
We praise you for the empowerment of your Spirit; help us to draw on that empowerment.
We praise you for the instruction of your Spirit; help us to listen to that instruction.
We praise you for the leadership of your Spirit; help us to follow that leadership.
We praise you for the grace of your Spirit; help us to embody that grace.

Saturday, January 10, 2015

in our relationship with you,
in our relationships with each other,
in our understanding of ourselves,
in our understanding of the world,
in our ability and willingness to forgive,
in our experience of your grace, and
in our knowing and sharing of your love.

Friday, January 9, 2015

between idealism and realism,
between freedom and responsibility,
between the one and the many,
between the eternal and the temporal, and
between conviction and openness.

Help us

to accept that which we should accept,
to strive for that for which we should strive,
to live with that with which we should live, and
to work to change that which should be changed.

Where our lives are out of balance, let them be out of balance because
we give more weight to grace, love, hope, mercy, trust, and peace
than we do to anything else and because
we give as little weight as possible—with no weight at all being our goal—
to fear, hate, apathy, revenge, and judgmentalism.

Show us how to have you at the center of
everything with which we deal in our lives.

Help us in all things to have as our aims
to love you with all we are and
to love others as we love ourselves.

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Thank you for sending Jesus to be the Light of the world;
thank you that the darkness has not and will not overcome his light.

Thank you that we who follow him can reflect his light so that
we become instruments through which the darkness is dispelled.

We could always use more light ourselves, though.

So enlighten us that we might better understand

the ways in which the world and even the universe work,
the lives of people whose experience is much different than ours,
the mysterious and counterintuitive ways that grace works,
your purposes in and goals for human history, and
the ways that your love is to show itself in our lives.

Then help us to live in the light of our ever-increasing enlightenment …

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

We praise you today for the grace of revelation;
we praise you that in your grace you reveal yourself to us
so that we might have the privilege of knowing you and
of knowing that we are known by you.

We praise you

for revealing yourself in your Son Jesus Christ,
for revealing him to the Magi and to people of every sort,
for revealing him as your Son in his baptism,
for revealing him as Savior in his crucifixion,
for revealing him as Lord in his resurrection and ascension,
for revealing him to us through your Holy Spirit,
for revealing him to the world in your Church, and
for revealing him to us in the lives of people who help us and who need our help.

Make and keep us open

to all the ways that Jesus is made known to us and
to all the ways that we can make Jesus known to others.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

We praise you that in the coming of Christ
you caused creation to turn the corner
toward the time when you will make
everything as it is meant to be.

We praise you that by your grace you
call us to be in on and to be a part of what
are doing in Christ to move
all things toward their goal.

Forgive us for when we forget what you are doing;
forgive us for when we fail to contribute to what you are doing;
forgive us for when we live as if we have no role in what you are doing.

Encourage us when we try but become discouraged;
empower us for the life you have given us to live;
enlarge our vision that we might better see your big picture.

Since in Christ you are bringing all things into
wholeness and unity, show us how to be people

who build up rather than tear down,
who help rather than hurt,
who are part of the solution rather than part of the problem,
who promote hope rather than despair,
who demonstrate love rather than hate,
who emphasize what unites us more than what separates us,
who listen more than we talk,
who practice humility rather than arrogance,
who work to make things better rather than complain about how bad things are,
who value others’ experience as much as we do our own, and
who trust in you rather than in our doctrinal systems, genetic inheritance, social circumstances, political positions, or anything else.

Oh God, help us to see and to participate in
what you are in Christ moving all things toward being.

Friday, January 2, 2015

We praise you that in Jesus Christ you
came to us to make your home with us.

We acknowledge our tendency to
run away from that home;
give us grace enough to return.

Perhaps we run

because we think we don’t deserve such a home or
because we are afraid of the expectations that come with such a home or
because in Jesus we see what love in such a home can cost us and others or
because of our acceptance or rejection by others with whom we share that home.

Perhaps we hesitate to return for the same reasons.

Give us grace to remember

that you welcome us home,
that home is where we belong, and
that being home here leads to being home there.

Thank you for making your home with us.
Thank you for welcoming us back home.

Thursday, January 1, 2015

We praise you that your Son was named Jesus, which means “Savior”;
we thank you that he came to save us from our sins.

From what do we still need saving?

Do we still need saving

from pride,
from fear,
from anger,
from resentment,
from greed,
from prejudice,
from judgmentalism,
from envy,
from apathy,
from selfishness,
from arrogance,
from isolation,
from sloth,
from inattention,
from shortsightedness,
from jingoism,
from narrow-mindedness,
or
from ignorance?

Help us to recognize and to confess
that from what we still need saving.

Let us pray ...

About Prayer 365

The prayers that appear at Prayer 365 are written and published by Michael L. Ruffin. Permission is granted to use or adapt these prayers in public worship with the condition that if a prayer is reproduced in a printed order of worship attribution is given. Permission is also granted to link to a prayer at this site provided that a link back to this blog is provided. All other rights are reserved. All Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version unless otherwise indicated.